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. 2017 Jun 24;10(4):555–569. doi: 10.1016/j.tranon.2017.04.005

Figure 9.

Figure 9

Plasticity of GBM stem-like cells. Interactions of GBM cells with the tumor microenvironment can dictate the dynamic balance between self-renewal and differentiation properties through growth factors present in serum-free stem-like cell medium, NS34, or through bovine-serum supplement in DMEM/F12 medium, respectively. The stem-like cell markers SOX2, OCT-4A, and Nanog differ in expression according to the stem cell state. Also, the connexins, important for cell-to-cell communication processes, demonstrate the plasticity of stem-like cells. As such, SOX2, OCT-4A, Nanog, and Cx46 are overexpressed in GSCs (green arrow), whereas Cx43 is downregulated (red arrow). In contrast, in non-GSCs, SOX2, OCT-4A, Nanog, and Cx46 are downregulated (red arrow), whereas Cx43 is overexpressed in GSCs (green arrow). Cells were imaged at 63× magnification using a DMi8 advanced fluorescence microscope (Leica Microsystems, Germany) and analyzed with Leica LA SAF Lite. Images were processed using the software ImageJ 1.49v (Wayne Rasband, National Institutes of Health).